Russia extend contract with national football coach Cherchesov

Moscow, July 28 (IANS) The Russian Football Union has announced a new contract with Stanislav Cherchesov, the head coach of the national football team for two more years.

The term of Cherchesov’s current contract expires next month and has been now prolonged for two more years stipulating also a possible extension of the deal for another two-year term depending on the national team’s future performance, reports TASS news agency.

According to earlier media reports, the new contract with the coaching staff of the national team is valued at 2.5 million euros (over $2.9 million).

“I am glad to continue my work with the Russian national team,” Cherchesov said.

“The bar is relatively high in terms of the team’s results and we would like to continue our work in the same manner. We realize the full scope of our responsibility and will be working with dignity.”

Led by 54-year-old Head Coach Cherchesov, the Russian national football team managed to reach the knockout stage of the 2018 FIFA World Cup advancing with a win over the Spanish team in the round of Last 16 and then losing on a penalty shootout in the quarterfinals to Croatia, which eventually reached the final match of the world championship.

Cherchesov took the reins of the national football squad in the summer of 2016 signing a contract with the RFU to work as the head coach of the team until August 2018.

This summer Russia hosted its first-ever FIFA World Cup, which kicked off in Moscow with a remarkable opening show at Luzhniki Stadium on the evening of June 14 and ended with a spectacular final match, played also at the Luzhniki Stadium, where France confidently defeated Croatia 4-2 to win the much-coveted World Cup Trophy.

Russia selected 11 host cities to be the venues for the matches of the 2018 World Cup and they were Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara.

Russia managed to make it to the World Cup quarter-finals, where they lost 3-4 to Croatia via penalty shoot-out on July 7 at the Fisht Arena in Sochi.

According to a statement from the world’s governing football body, FIFA, earlier in the week, Russia’s Head Coach Cherchesov had been included in the short-list of nominees for the FIFA Best Coach of the Year award.